Word: pashtun
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Iran and Pakistan are particularly interested in the future shape of Afghanistan's government. Pakistan despises the Northern Alliance because of its tilt against the Pashtun (also represented in Pakistan), its ties to archrival India and its disastrous rule of Kabul from 1992 to '96. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is blunt: "Their return would mean a return to anarchy and criminal killing." For its part, Iran, whose Muslims belong mainly to the Shi'ite branch of Islam, has backed members of the Northern Alliance representing Afghanistan's Shi'ite minority. On the sidelines of last week's meeting...
...Afghan King, Mohammed Zahir Shah, whom the U.S. has tapped as a symbolic rallying figure for post-Taliban Afghanistan. But if Shirzai is following the age-old Afghan custom of building bridges, he is also following its equally venerable tradition of nursing grudges. His clan is part of the Pashtun ethnic group, which, with 40% of the population, is Afghanistan's biggest. Shirzai is wary of the forces of the Northern Alliance, who are mostly Tajiks (25% of all Afghans) and Uzbeks (6%) and who are poised, should the Taliban fall, to greatly expand the limited terrain now under their...
...State Department spokesman. However, in the back rooms of the world's capitals, an outline is beginning to emerge. The U.N. helped persuade the ousted King to convene a grand assembly, traditionally known as a loya jirga. Three weeks ago, Zahir, who has broad support among his fellow Pashtun, met with representatives of the Northern Alliance in Rome and made a deal under which together they would appoint a council of 120 representatives to select as many as 1,000 tribal elders and respected Afghans for the loya jirga. That group would elect a transitional head of state to form...
...placate such skeptics, the U.S. and the King have sworn they are not trying to bring the monarchy back. "He is not a pretender to the throne," says the King's longtime lieutenant, General Abdul Wali, also an exile in Rome. For their part, the southern Pashtun are enthusiastic about the loya jirga. They say once it is convened, they will come up with a workable compromise for governing the country...
...Iran and Pakistan are particularly interested in the future shape of Afghanistan's government. Pakistan despises the Northern Alliance because of its tilt against the Pashtun (also represented in Pakistan), its ties to archrival India and its disastrous rule of Kabul from 1992 to '96. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is blunt: "Their return would mean a return to anarchy and criminal killing." For its part, Iran, whose Muslims belong mainly to the Shi'ite branch of Islam, has backed members of the Northern Alliance representing Afghanistan's Shi'ite minority. On the sidelines of last week's meeting...